Kwaidan

Lafcadio Hearn

Description

Scholar Lafcadio Hearn made it his life's work to study the world's supernatural superstitions, with a particular focus on Asian cultures. This volume brings together a series of traditional Japanese ghost stories, as well as several first-hand accounts of unusual occurrences in the country. A must-read for fans of comparative mythology.

Informations

• Publié par: The Floating Press
• Date de parution: 01 juin 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781775458555
• Langue: English

Extrait

KWAIDAN
STORIES AND STUDIES OF STRANGE THINGS
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LAFCADIO HEARN
 
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Kwaidan Stories and Studies of Strange Things First published in 1904 ISBN 978-1-77545-855-5 © 2012 The Floating Press and its licensors. All rights reserved. While every effort has been used to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the information contained in The Floating Press edition of this book, The Floating Press does not assume liability or responsibility for any errors or omissions in this book. The Floating Press does not accept responsibility for loss suffered as a result of reliance upon the accuracy or currency of information contained in this book. Do not use while operating a motor vehicle or heavy equipment. Many suitcases look alike. Visit www.thefloatingpress.com
Contents
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Introduction The Story of Mimi-Nashi-Hoichi Oshidori The Story of O-Tei Ubazakura Diplomacy Of a Mirror and a Bell Jikininki Mujina Rokuro-Kubi A Dead Secret Yuki-Onna The Story of Aoyagi Jiu-Roku-Zakura The Dream of Akinosuke Riki-Baka Hi-Mawari Horai INSECT STUDIES Butterflies Mosquitoes Ants Endnotes
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The spelling "KWAIDAN" is based on premodern Japanese pronunciation;when Hearn came to Japan, the orthography reflecting this pronunciationwas still in use. In modern Japanese the word is pronounced KAIDAN.
Introduction
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The publication of a new volume of Lafcadio Hearn's exquisite studiesof Japan happens, by a delicate irony, to fall in the very month whenthe world is waiting with tense expectation for news of the latestexploits of Japanese battleships. Whatever the outcome of the presentstruggle between Russia and Japan, its significance lies in the factthat a nation of the East, equipped with Western weapons and girdingitself with Western energy of will, is deliberately measuring strengthagainst one of the great powers of the Occident. No one is wise enoughto forecast the results of such a conflict upon the civilization of theworld. The best one can do is to estimate, as intelligently aspossible, the national characteristics of the peoples engaged, basingone's hopes and fears upon the psychology of the two races rather thanupon purely political and statistical studies of the complicatedquestions involved in the present war. The Russian people have hadliterary spokesmen who for more than a generation have fascinated theEuropean audience. The Japanese, on the other hand, have possessed nosuch national and universally recognized figures as Turgenieff orTolstoy. They need an interpreter.
It may be doubted whether any oriental race has ever had an interpretergifted with more perfect insight and sympathy than Lafcadio Hearn hasbrought to the translation of Japan into our occidental speech. Hislong residence in that country, his flexibility of mind, poeticimagination, and wonderfully pellucid style have fitted him for themost delicate of literary tasks. He has seen marvels, and he has toldof them in a marvelous way. There is scarcely an aspect of contemporaryJapanese life, scarcely an element in the social, political, andmilitary questions involved in the present conflict with Russia whichis not made clear in one or another of the books with which he hascharmed American readers.
He characterizes Kwaidan as "stories and studies of strange things." Ahundred thoughts suggested by the book might be written down, but mostof them would begin and end with this fact of strangeness. To read thevery names in the table of contents is like listening to a Buddhistbell, struck somewhere far away. Some of his tales are of the long ago,and yet they seem to illumine the very souls and minds of the littlemen who are at this hour crowding the decks of Japan's armoredcruisers. But many of the stories are about women and children,—thelovely materials from which the best fairy tales of the world have beenwoven. They too are strange, these Japanese maidens and wives andkeen-eyed, dark-haired girls and boys; they are like us and yet notlike us; and the sky and the hills and the flowers are all differentfrom ours. Yet by a magic of which Mr. Hearn, almost alone amongcontemporary writers, is the master, in these delicate, transparent,ghostly sketches of a world unreal to us, there is a haunting sense ofspiritual reality.
In a penetrating and beautiful essay contributed to the "AtlanticMonthly" in February, 1903, by Paul Elmer More, the secret of Mr.Hearn's magic is said to lie in the fact that in his art is found "themeeting of three ways." "To the religious instinct of India—Buddhismin particular,—which history has engrafted on the aesthetic sense ofJapan, Mr. Hearn brings the interpreting spirit of occidental science;and these three traditions are fused by the peculiar sympathies of hismind into one rich and novel compound,—a compound so rare as to haveintroduced into literature a psychological sensation unknown before."Mr. More's essay received the high praise of Mr. Hearn's recognitionand gratitude, and if it were possible to reprint it here, it wouldprovide a most suggestive introduction to these new stories of oldJapan, whose substance is, as Mr. More has said, "so strangely mingledtogether out of the austere dreams of India and the subtle beauty ofJapan and the relentless science of Europe."
March, 1904.
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Most of the following Kwaidan, or Weird Tales, have been taken from oldJapanese books,—such as the Yaso-Kidan, Bukkyo-Hyakkwa-Zensho,Kokon-Chomonshu, Tama-Sudare, and Hyaku-Monogatari. Some of the storiesmay have had a Chinese origin: the very remarkable "Dream ofAkinosuke," for example, is certainly from a Chinese source. But thestory-teller, in every case, has so recolored and reshaped hisborrowing as to naturalize it... One queer tale, "Yuki-Onna," was toldme by a farmer of Chofu, Nishitama-gori, in Musashi province, as alegend of his native village. Whether it has ever been written inJapanese I do not know; but the extraordinary belief which it recordsused certainly to exist in most parts of Japan, and in many curiousforms... The incident of "Riki-Baka" was a personal experience; and Iwrote it down almost exactly as it happened, changing only afamily-name mentioned by the Japanese narrator.
L.H.
Tokyo, Japan, January 20th, 1904.
The Story of Mimi-Nashi-Hoichi
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More than seven hundred years ago, at Dan-no-ura, in the Straits ofShimonoseki, was fought the last battle of the long contest between theHeike, or Taira clan, and the Genji, or Minamoto clan. There the Heikeperished utterly, with their women and children, and their infantemperor likewise—now remembered as Antoku Tenno. And that sea andshore have been haunted for seven hundred years... Elsewhere I told youabout the strange crabs found there, called Heike crabs, which havehuman faces on their backs, and are said to be the spirits of the Heikewarriors [1] . But there are many strange things to be seen and heardalong that coast. On dark nights thousands of ghostly fires hover aboutthe beach, or flit above the waves,—pale lights which the fishermencall Oni-bi, or demon-fires; and, whenever the winds are up, a sound ofgreat shouting comes from that sea, like a clamor of battle.
In former years the Heike were much more restless than they now are.They would rise about ships passing in the night, and try to sink them;and at all times they would watch for swimmers, to pull them down. Itwas in order to appease those dead that the Buddhist temple, Amidaji,was built at Akamagaseki [2] . A cemetery also was made close by, nearthe beach; and within it were set up monuments inscribed with the namesof the drowned emperor and of his great vassals; and Buddhist serviceswere regularly performed there, on behalf of the spirits of them. Afterthe temple had been built, and the tombs erected, the Heike gave lesstrouble than before; but they continued to do queer things atintervals,—proving that they had not found the perfect peace.
Some centuries ago there lived at Akamagaseki a blind man named Hoichi,who was famed for his skill in recitation and in playing upon the biwa [3] . From childhood he had been trained to recite and to play; andwhile yet a lad he had surpassed his teachers. As a professionalbiwa-hoshi he became famous chiefly by his recitations of the historyof the Heike and the Genji; and it is said that when he sang the songof the battle of Dan-no-ura "even the goblins (kijin) could not refrainfrom tears."
At the outset of his career, Hoichi was very poor; but he found a goodfriend to help him. The priest of the Amidaji was fond of poetry andmusic; and he often invited Hoichi to the temple, to play and recite.Afterwards, being much impressed by the wonderful skill of the lad, thepriest proposed that Hoichi should make the temple his home; and thisoffer was gratefully accepted. Hoichi was given a room in thetemple-building; and, in return for food and lodging, he was requiredonly to gratify the priest with a musical performance on certainevenings, when otherwise disengaged.
One summer night the priest was called away, to perform a Buddhistservice at the house of a dead parishioner; and he went there with hisacolyte, leaving Hoichi alone in the temple. It was a hot night; andthe blind man sought to cool himself on the verandah before hissleeping-room. The verandah overlooked a small garden in the rear ofthe Amidaji. There Hoichi waited for the priest's return, and tried torelieve his solitude by practicing upon his biwa. Midnight passed; andthe priest did not appear. But the atmosphere was still too warm forcomfort within doors; and Hoichi remained outside. At last he heardsteps approaching from the back gate. Somebody crossed the garden,advanced to the verandah, and halted directly in front of him—but itwas not the priest. A deep voice called the blind man's name—abruptlyand unceremoniously, in the manner of a samurai summoning an inferior:—
"Hoichi!"
"Hai!" [4] answered the blind man, frightened by the menace in thevoice,—"I am blind!—I cannot know who calls!"
"There is nothing to fear," t